Results

Book

Combatting Unemployment
IZA Prize in Labor Economics

Combatting Unemployment is a collection of key papers from seminal labour economists Richard Layard and Stephen J. Nickell. The authors received the IZA Prize in Labor Economics in 2008 for their path-breaking work o...Read more...

SERC/Urban and Spatial Programme Discussion Paper

The Impact of Immigration on Occupational Wages: Evidence from Britain

This paper asks whether immigration to Britain has had any impact on average wages. There seems to be a broad consensus among academics that the share of immigrants in the workforce has little or no effect on the pay rat...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Does relative income matter? Are the critics right?

Do other peoples’ incomes reduce the happiness which people in advanced countries experience from any given income? And does this help to explain why in the U.S., Germany and some other advanced countries, happiness has ...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Public Economics:

The marginal utility of income

In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal utility of income declines as income increases. One needs this parameter for cost-benefit analysis, for optimal taxation and for the (Atkinson) me...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Life on the Monetary Policy Committee

Stephen Nickell reflects on his experiences setting the nation's official interest rate...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

The Marginal Utility of Income

In normative public economics it is crucial to know how fast the marginal utility of income declines as income increases. One needs this parameter for cost-benefit analysis, for optimal taxation and for the (Atkinson) me...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Patterns of Work Across the OECD

Market work per person of working age differs widely across the OECD countries and there have been some significant changes in the last forty years. How to explain this pattern? Taxes are part of the story but much remai...Read more...

Book

Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market

This book aims to provide a basis for better unemployment policy: showing how the lessons learned from experience and theory can be applied to greatly reduce the waste and misery of high unemployment. The book surveys th...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Tackling Unemployment: Europe's Successes and Failures

Why has unemployment fallen in some European countries but not in others? To answer this question, Richard Layard, Stephen Nickell and Richard Jackman revisit their landmark analysis of macroeconomic performance and the ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Inactivity Among Prime Age Men in the UK

Inactivity rates among prime-age men in the UK have risen by at least five times since the early 1970s whereas unemployment rates are much the same. Furthermore, inactivity is strongly concentrated among the unskilled an...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Employment and Taxes

This paper considers the impact of taxation policy on market work. On the basis of the evidence, we find that a 10 percentage point rise in the tax wedge will reduce overall labour input provided via the market by around...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Poverty and Worklessness

Stephen Nickell provides a profile of poverty in Britain today and argues that it is high by European standards because of our exceptionally long tail of very low skilled adults....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Poverty and Worklessness in Britain

Relative poverty in the UK has risen massively since 1979 mainly because of increasing worklessness, rising earnings dispersion and benefits indexed to prices, not wages. So poverty is now at a very high level. The econo...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

A Picture of European Unemployment: Success and Failure.

Average unemployment in Europe today is relatively high compared with OECD countries outside Europe. The majority of countries in Europe today have lower unemployment than any OECD country outside Europe, including the U...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Full Employment Is Not Just a Dream

Europe's leaders have pledged themselves to ambitious targets for employment by 2010. Richard Layard and Stephen Nickell here present them with a manifesto for how it can be achieved....Read more...

CentrePiece article

Patterns of Growth

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CEP discussion paper

Educational Attainment, Labour Market Institutions, and the Structure of Production

A key feature of OECD economic growth since the early 1970s has been the secular decline in manufacturing's share of GDP and the secular rise of service sectors. This paper examines the role played by relative prices, t...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Why Do Jobless Rates Differ?

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CEP discussion paper

The Beveridge Curve, Unemployment and Wages in the OECD from the 1960s to the 1990s - Preliminary Version

This paper is an empirical analysis of unemployment patterns in the OECD countries from the 1960s to the 1990s, looking at the Beveridge Curves, real wages as well as unemployment directly. Our results indicate the follo...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Nominal Wage Rigidity and the Rate of Inflation

Using the accurate and extensive data available in the UK New Earnings Survey, this paper investigates the extent to which nominal wages are downwardly rigid and whether such rigidity interferes with necessary real wage ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Technological Innovation and Performance in the United Kingdom

Over the period since 1970, Britain has improved its relative productivity performance, but there remains a significant gap in market sector productivity between Britain and both Continental Europe and the United States....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

A Picture of Job Insecurity Facing British Men

This paper considers three aspects of the job insecurity facing British men in the last two decades. The probability of becoming unemployed, the costs of unemployment in terms of real wages losses and the probability tha...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Wage Equations, Wage Curves and All That

This paper is concerned with the relationship between wages and unemployment. Using UK regions and individuals as the basis for our analysis, the following questions are investigated. First, is the wage equation a relati...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Employment Patterns in OECD Countries

This paper studies the dynamics of labour demand and the determinants of employment rates across the OECD. We find: (i) labour demand adjusts less rapidly when employment protection is more strict and union density is hi...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Mirage or Miracle?

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CEP discussion paper

The Effectiveness of Top Management Groups in Manufacturing Organisations

We test whether demographic characteristics and team processes in top management teams predict the subsequent productivity and profitability of their companies in 42 UK manufacturing organisation. The results that there ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Labour Market Institutions and Economic Performance

Barely a day goes by without some expert telling us how the continental European economies are about to disintegrate unless their labour markets become more flexible. Basically, we are told, Europe has the wrong sort of ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Human Capital Investment and Innovation: What Are The Connections?

Finegold and Soskice (1998) argue that Britain is trapped in a 'low-skills' equilibrium. In Redding (1996), this notion is formalised in a dynamic model which relies on strategic complementaries between firms' investm...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Does Innovation Encourage Investment in Fixed Capital?

This paper presents an empirical investigation of the hypothesis that increased R&D expenditure by companies generates a subsequent increase in fixed capital investment both within the same companies and in the companies...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

What Makes Firms Perform Well?

In this paper, we investigate the role of three external factors in generating improved productivity performance in companies. These are product market competition, financial market pressure and shareholder control. We h...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Political Economy:

Competition and corporate performance

Are people right to think that competition improves corporate performance? My investigations indicate first that there are some theoretical reasons for believing this hypothesis to be correct, but they are not overwhelmi...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Combatting Unemployment: Is Flexibility Enough?

Our conclusions are the most important influences on unemployment come from the following (i) The longer unemployment benefits are available the longer unemployment lasts. Similarly, higher levels of benefits generate hi...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Would Cutting Payroll Taxes on the Unskilled Have a Significant Effect on Unemployment?

This paper states two recommendations from an OECD Report: (1) 'Reduce non-wage labour costs, especially in Europe, by reducing taxes on labourà' (2) 'Reduce direct taxes (social security and income taxes) on those with ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

How Does Financial Pressure Affect Firms?

How does monetary policy work? While one aspect of the investigation has focused on the behaviour of consumers, another has concentrated on the behaviour of companies faced with the kind of financial pressures associated...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Labour Market Dynamics in OECD Countries

The title accurately reflects the subject matter of the paper and we come to the following conclusions. First, we note that well documented difficulties in hiring faced by firms in the tight labour market of a boom provi...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Wages

Empirical analyses of longitudinal data on some 66 manufacturing companies on Britain lead us to the following three conclusions. First, agreed reductions in restrictive work practices lead to increases in productivity. ...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Competition and Corporate Performance

This paper investigates the impact of competition on the productivity performance of companies. The key hypothesis is that firms which operate in a more competitive environment have a higher levels of productivity and/or...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Cohort Size Effects on the Wages of Young Men in Britain 1961-89

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CEP discussion paper

Unemployment in the OECD Countries

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CEP discussion paper

Wages, Unions, Insiders and Product Market Power

This paper analyses time series data on some 800 British manufacturing companies to address various questions concerning the role of insiders and market power in wage determination. The following are the important result...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Productivity Growth in UK Companies

The main empirical conclusion of this paper are: (i) Higher levels of debt are associated with increases in both the level and the growth rate of productivity (ii) Increases in market share are associated with falls in t...Read more...